Tennis balls and other objects have heretofore been measured, tested, and otherwise treated to determine if they meet standards or specifications (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,960). In particular, tennis balls have been tested using test stations in which operation of the stations is by hand and transport of the balls from station-to-station is manually accomplished. Testing is formed to meet ball requirements of international, national and other tennis organizations.
Prior ball testing equipment has included calipers, "go no-go" gauges for measuring diameters, and scales for determining weight. Other ball test equipment has included compression vices for compressing the ball under known loads to measure ball deflection.
While other semiautomated systems for transport and inspection have been proposed for meat packages (U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,053) and biscuits (U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,685) no satisfactory system or method for testing objects, such as tennis balls, has been known or available.